Oct. 11, 2003
Stats
Pocatello, ID--Ali Gorny led the Idaho State attack with 18 kills and the Bengals had a total of eight team blocks as they defeated Weber State, 30-20, 37-35, 30-28, in Big Sky Conference volleyball action Saturday night at Reed Gymnasium.
Gorny, a junior from Littlerock, CA, had at least five kills in each game, including seven in a thrilling game two. She also added nine digs, three assists and two service aces for the Bengals. Martha Brinton, a junior from Salt Lake City, had her eighth double-double of the season with 40 assists and 11 digs. She added six kills and a .455 attack percentage as well.
The Bengals never trailed, or were tied, in rolling to a 30-20 game one victory. ISU had 15 kills against just three errors, and three blocks in the game.
Game two started out with a 7-3 Weber State run led by a pair of Stephanie Birch kills. But a kill by Jennie James started ISU on a 7-0 run to take the lead at 10-7. From there it really got interesting as the two teams combined for five lead changes and 17 ties in game two. A 7-3 run late in the game put the Wildcats on the brink of a win at 29-27. But Ali Gorny responded with a kill, then Kamie Olsen and Heather Gilmore combined for a block to tie things at 29-29. Martha Brinton finally ended the back-and-forth game with a kill to give ISU the 37-35 win. The 37 points in a game set an ISU school record.
"Winning game two was huge," ISU Head Coach Mike Welch said. "I'm really impressed with the composure of the ladies, especially considering how many game points we served and how many they served."
In game three the Wildcats again took the early lead at 7-3. They increased the lead to as much as 11-4 before ISU rallied again. The game went back and forth until Ali Gorny ended the match with back-to-back kills.
"The fans were great tonight," Welch said. "They were really into the match. I don't know if we could have won game two without them."
"We did some things really well tonight. We did a great job with our rotation and our blocking was fantastic. Ali played very composed. The big thing was that she was very consistent throughout the match."
With the win the Bengals improved to 13-5 overall and 3-2 in Big Sky Conference play. Weber State fell to 5-11 and 2-3. ISU will hit the road to face Northern Arizona and Sacramento State next weekend, starting with Northern Arizona on Thursday at 8:00 p.m. in Flagstaff, AZ.
